"At the top of the distribution table there are several big
wigs. One of which is openSUSE. It wasn't always 'openSUSE' though,
that is a more recent development. When the original German distro
was first released in 1994 it was called 'S.u.S.E', which stood for
'Software und System-Entwicklung', or 'Software and System
Development' in English. With later releases it was shortened to
just 'SuSE', and then later again to 'SUSE Linux'.
"The initial release was merely a German translation of
Slackware Linux, the oldest surviving distro today. Soon thereafter
the team decided they needed an installer and better system
management tools, and so YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) was born.
YaST is perhaps the single most defining aspect of the
distribution, something which is still integral to the distribution
today. From these early beginnings, SuSE has grown and matured into
one of the most popular and indeed beloved Linux based operating
systems in the world and is especially popular in Europe."
